More Cappadoccia
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2006
1
22
40
Trip End
Oct 28, 2006
Goreme,
Turkey
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Today we did the second of the two tours offered by the hotel. This one started, like yesterday's, up above the village of Goreme, but as the air was much less clear the views were different. We couldn't see the volcano, but the colours were pretty.
Then to a proper underground city. This one was originally seven levels below ground, but only four are open to the public. It's a remarkable place, to see the rooms where those poor frightened people slept and kept their donkeys and cooked their food and generally lived their lives. The word "city" isn't a misnomer - it really is an entire community underground, with tunnels and stairs leading here and there, a bit like an ants' nest. And of course all this wonderful organic form - soft, gentle doorways and "windows" from room to room. The only downside was that we were walking around at the same time as a HUGE group of very noisy Spaniards, so there were times when we felt a bit hemmed in
01 View of Goreme from Access Road
.We were a much smaller group this time: just ourselves and Diego and Karin, the Argentinians from yesterday, and a young Chicago couple who are honeymooning so tended to keep themselves fairly much to themselves, and Isa and the same driver as yesterday.
Graham
I had taken some stuff for my cold so I slept well until 7am only waking briefly at 4am to listen to the Muezzin. Our underground room is comfortably warm, and the huge bed the perfect firmness. Mandi had received a worried call from Tunc asking us to read an email concerning my presentation, so I went up to reception to read the message and reply. His dean just wanted a summary of the presentation so that he could advertise. Unfortunately I must have dropped the stylus for my palm, because it wasn't in its hole when I needed it after breakfast.
We decided to be smart and be first on the bus for our Adventure tour, but we were early and didn't know which was our bus. As it happened, there wasn't a problem because there were only 3 couples anyway, us Diego and Karin and an American couple from Chicago who were on their honeymoon.
02 Inside the underground city
We stopped at Uchisar again, and this time Mandi bought a lovely ruana for 20YTL. She asked me quietly whether she should bargain and I said that she should, not realising that the shopkeeper spoke English. He said that we shouldn't but that, because it was the first sale of the day that he would give it to her for a good price. The rest of the day is a blur of bus trips and sights. We stopped for a wine tasting, but neither of the wines was any good. The hosts don't really have a clue as they were happy to pour the red directly into the white wine glass without washing, or getting rid of the residue.
Mandi
After that to a winery, where we tasted a single white and a single red (only I didn't have the red) wine. We don't much like Turkish wine - it seems very sharp and resinous. Then to the place were poor old St Simeon Stiletes hung out, and I must say, I feel a lot less sorry for him now that I've seen that his "pillar" was actually a very comfortable house and church hollowed out of one of the pinnacles that we so love. And thence to lunch in Avanos, in a place which specialises in the casseroles-in-a-pot that we had for dinner last night. Apparently Isa had called ahead so we had it cooked authentically, in the pot all morning, and we had a single pot which wasn't broken. It had been sealed with pastry (I think the French do a similar thing) and it was just the pastry that was broken, very ceremoniously, at the table, by the chef and maitre d'. And very splendid it was too, a delicious, tender, beef stew. We had started with a vegetable soup and then something very like a Spanish omelette, and finished with (in my case) baklava and the ubiquitous elma cay, which I really like.
03 TRYING to buy ice-cream
Graham
We stopped at some fairy castles which were great to look at, but not so good to explore. After a while, the shapes and sites blend into a common memory and it is difficult to remember what is what. We discovered that Simon Stilites didn't really live on top of a pillar, but rather in one of the reasonably comfortable houses carved into one of these cones. Unfortunately locals or tourists had used one of the more interesting rooms as a urinal.
Mandi
After lunch to what was quite a highlight of the day for me, a pottery at Avanos. Avanos is famous for its pottery, and justifiably so as the finished works are superb. We were shown around the factory by a very entertaining young Turk called, of all things, Cameron, and given the opportunity to make complete fools of ourselves on the old-fashioned kick-wheel (having just been shown how to do it by a master, who made a perfect lidded sugar bowl, looking as if he was just sitting there and it sort of grew in his hands. Gray made a thing which looked remarkably like a miniature toilet, then Karin, in the Great Southern Hemisphere Challenge, made a VERY respectable-looking bowl, even with a bit of pinched decoration around the outside - would have been brilliant of only it had had a bottom!!! I then went in to bat for Australia and produced the saddest ashtray (having announced I was about to make a tea-pot!) sort of thing you have ever seen. We had to concede defeat to Argentina.
We went into the showroom and the stuff was just so gorgeous that I'm afraid we succumbed, and bought two wonderful masterpiece plates - one in traditional "Hittite" patterns, which is a pretty goldeny-orange decorated with little animals in black, and the other a traditional design in many colours which represents the family
08 Fairy castles
. Once one is paying for shipping back to Australia, it made sense to just pop one small cheap traditional tulip design one in as well... and expensive excursion, but they will give us a lot of pleasure. We did offer to swap our wonderful handwork for theirs, but for some reason they weren't biting, can't think why.Graham
We had lunch in the Cave restaurant in Avanos (I think). This was an interesting underground structure with a central atrium about 15m in diameter, with niches carved out for the tables. I really don't know how the rock supports such a wide span with such a shallow arch. We had the pot kebab again, but this time the food had all been cooked together in a big pot. It was a lot better that the version we had had last night, but not a dramatic to open.
After lunch we went to visit a pottery. This was lots of fun as one of the master potters made a dinner plate in about 30seconds. He then made a beautiful sugar bowl with lid on an old kick wheel. We were then given a chance to do the same, so after donning a pair of floral bloomers, I made an extremely lumpy bowl. Karen went next, and would have produced something really delicate had she not lost all the clay from the bottom of her construction
09 At Simon Stilete´s pillar
. Mandi was the final entrant in the competition as the Americans had opted out. Her bowl would have been good, but she ended up making the walls too thin and it went wonky. In the end we voted the Argentinian contingent the winner. We then went on to see the painstaking process of designing and painting the ceramics before being given a chance to browse through their shop.There was some very beautiful work, and so we selected two pieces, one a glazed "family" piece made from rings of patterns in very vivid colours, and a second in the Hittite style on red clay, all brown's and black line drawings. We decided not to carry such delicate work and opted to have it shipped back to Sydney.
Mandi
Then a couple of short stops to look at particularly interesting rock formations - one lovely area with all sorts of animals although we believe the camel is actually a snail, and had to insist, on our Southern-Hemisphere honours, that another formation was really a penguin.
Finally we started our hike for the day. Although it was afternoon, it wasn't hot and was just so fascinating that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. We hiked along the lip of Rose Valley and then down into it, which we had to do with a lot of sliding on bottoms and even a sort of primitive abseiling, and squeezing through very narrow little rain tunnels. The colours and rock formations were just breathtaking.
Graham
On the way back to the rose valley, we stopped to see a couple more fairy castles with interesting caps in the form of animals which was quite fun to spot
10 pinnacle
. We reckon that we discovered a couple of new ones that Isa had not notices, so it would be interesting to see whether he incorporates them into his repertoire.Finally we got to the start of our hike. This followed a sandy track on top of the valley before dropping steeply down onto the valley floor. Here the water cut shapes were quite unreal. This trip was a lot of fun as there was a section that required that we abseil down about 10m before passing through a tunnel. Mandi wasn't too happy during the walk out of the valley, but she made it to the top and thence back to the bus without too many problems.
Finally, tired and VERY dirty, Diego and Karin and Graham and I got Isa to drop us off at his recommended carpet dealer, where we were shown the whole process including spinning silk from cocoons, which I've never seen before. You can't believe that such a thin thread can be so strong. They then did this ultimate Turkish showman/salesman thing of whirling out a dozen or twenty carpets of all styles so you could narrow down what you were looking for. It was, as Karin said, like a fashion show for our especial benefit as two or three men circled around us, flashing glorious carpets and even spinning them in the air so you can see the amazing way in which silk pile changes colour depending on which direction you are looking at it from. There were several little silk rugs I'd have died for, but they were priced around the $20,000 (US) mark, so probably a tad out of reach. But the salesmen were still perfectly happy to show them off and have us admire them.
When we'd admired all that, we told them we were really after a sumak, and so they took us off to a room with a wooden floor so we'd get an idea of what it would look like in our house
11 Karin and Diego
. Diego and Karin stayed in the first room, but in the end didn't find what they were looking for. We, however, found an absolute beauty in the sort of golden, honey colours we like so much - motifs of the little chickens and things we like best, too. We probably paid much more than we should have because we can't bargain, but we don't care because it's just so lovely.Back to the hotel for a drink with Diego and Karin on the terrace, and then although we weren't hungry after our huge lunch, we went down to the village for a good meal, a bottle of wine and a lot a laughter. We really like them - they are real darlings, and we all laugh a lot and get on as if we've known them all our lives. We were telling them about the strange way that Australians don't entertain in their homes, and how hard we've found it adjusting to that, and they were amazed, so clearly Argentina must be much more like South Africa in that respect; also in the way that people get to know one another. We probably know them better after two days than we do almost anyone in Australia. I hope we can stay in touch.
